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At a meeting of the COALFIELD AREA COMMITTEE held at HOUGHTON KEPIER SPORTS COLLEGE, DIARY LANE, HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING on WEDNESDAY, 4 TH NOVEMBER, 2009 at 6.00 p.m. Present:- Councillor J. Scott in the Chair Councillors Anderson, Blackburn, Ellis, Heron, D. Richardson, Rolph, D. Smith, Speding, Tate and Wakefield. Also in Attendance:- Judith Allen - Family Adult and Community Learning, Sunderland Council Susan Brown - Coalfield Forum Kath Butchert - Youth Development Group, Sunderland Council Graham Carr - Highway Maintenance, Sunderland Council Steve Dodds - Nexus Tim Ducker - Rights of Way, Sunderland Council Graham Finlay - Northumbria Police Paul Gray - Sunderland TPCT Emma Hindmarsh - Democratic Services, Sunderland Council Pauline Hopper - Area Officer, Sunderland Council Julie Heathcote - Corporate Communications, Sunderland Council Jill Laverick - Corporate Communications, Sunderland Council Vivienne Metcalf - Community Development, Sunderland Council Andrew Perkin - Business and Investment Team, Sunderland Council Les Platt - Diversity Team, Sunderland Council Mike Poulter - Project and Service Development, Sunderland Council Judith Quinn - Sunderland College Mike Shepherd - Houghton Kepier School Derek Welsh - Housing and Neighbourhood Renewal Team, Sunderland Council Paul Wilson - Connexions Apologies for Absence Apologies for absence were submitted to the meeting on behalf of Councillor A. Hall. Welcome and Introductions The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked all those present to introduce themselves. Page 1 of 52 Minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 9 th September, 2009 i) Referring to page 5, paragraph 9, Councillor Wakefield advised that the Thematic Feedback report (Annex 2) gave a more accurate reflection of the action requested regarding the transplanting of trees from Russell Foster Woods. ii) Page 6, paragraph 4, 'taxi car' is amended to read 'taxi card' and the sentence "… Nexus need to be more accountable for public transport" be amended to read "Bus companies needed to be more accountable…" 1. RESOLVED that i) the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 9 th September, 2009 (copy circulated) be confirmed and signed as a correct record subject to the above amendments. ii) Members receive a list of all services subsidised (secured) by Nexus. Questions to Area Committee There were no questions to the Area Committee received. Variation in the Order of Business The Chairman proposed, and it was agreed to consider Item 8, Responsive Local Services at Item 5 on the agenda. Responsive Local Services The Executive Director of City Services submitted a report (copy circulated) to advise the Committee of the commencement of the Responsive Local Services (RLS) project which forms part of the Council's Community Programme. (For copy report – see original minutes). Mr. Mike Poulter, Head of Project and Service Development, was in attendance and presented the report advising that from the January cycle of meetings a report would be brought to the Committee indicating how neighbourhood services were performing and being delivered with regard to litter, refuse collection, grass cutting, graffiti and dog fouling. Councillor Wakefield advised that it was important that an accurate baseline was established before performance could be measured. Page 2 of 52 Mr. Poulter informed the Committee that there would be an agreed generic service standard for everyone across the City with an established baseline. In response to a question from Councillor Ellis, Mr. Poulter advised that feedback reports would be brought back to each Committee cycle, preferably with a pictorial visual aid that could be easily understood. Councillor Rolph welcomed the move from a 'one size fits all' approach. However, she questioned the resource capacity of the City Services Directorate to be able to deliver the Project effectively. Mr. Poulter advised that the resource implications had to be considered carefully in the first instance. Services needed to be tailored and delivered in an area and there was a clear imperative from the Directorate to establish a map of the issues and make headway in terms of tailoring. Councillor Rolph referred to the Local Multi Agency Problem Solving Group (LMAPS) which already looked at anti social behaviour in an area and hoped that other groups would not be duplicating work that was already being done. Mr. Poulter advised that the Area Committee would look at existing mechanisms in place and if necessary refer any issues to them. Furthermore if they deemed it appropriate, the Committee could agree that a working group is established to discuss a particular issue in more detail. Councillor Anderson stated that the Coalfields was a large geographical area with differing priorities and preferences in respective neighbourhoods. She queried whether this was recognised within the project and how tailoring would work. Mr. Poulter advised that the project was in its early stages and would initially focus on high volume neighbourhood services. As the project was developed, the second wave would be more sophisticated, tailoring service standards to match local need. Councillor Speding referred the issues that could possibly arise when a number of providers were responsible for services in an area, for example, Gentoo and the Council both carry out grass cutting provision in certain neighbourhoods. As Gentoo would have different performance standards Councillor Speding queried how this would be resolved. Mr. Poulter advised that the Council would work with partners such as Gentoo at a local level to ensure agreement on uniform service standards. 2. RESOLVED that the contents of the report be received and noted. Page 3 of 52 Coalfield a Learning Area Summary The Chief Executive submitted a report (copy circulated) which asked Members to consider and identify their main proposals for further development and action in relation to their Learning Area priority theme. (For copy report – see original minutes). Ms. Pauline Hopper, Area Officer, reminded Members that the Committee had agreed its work programme for the year at its meeting held in June and that the Learning priority was the third to come to the Committee for discussion and consideration. Ms. Lynda Brown, Head of Standards, took Members through each of the seven priority issues, as detailed below. Each priority was considered in turn and Members were given an update with regard to current activity and actions taken for each. i) Provide non academic support and advice for children and young people. ii) Adequate youth provision to be available for all wards. iii) Prepare young people for adult life through encouragement and building of confidence. iv) Raise aspirations of children/young people and their families. v) Raise attainment levels and skills of young people. vi) More support for 14-19 year olds regarding employability skills. vii) Address issues around lack of public transport in some areas. Kath Butchert, Integrated Youth Officer, Children's Services, provided a further update to the Committee regarding current youth provision in North and South Coalfields commissioned by the Council. Ms. Brown stated that the information provided by Ms. Butchert related to that retained by the Youth Development Group and information from other Groups also needed to be considered. Councillor Rolph asked that the Committee's request for funding application for mobile youth provision be included in the actions (taking into consideration that the Committee were given assurances by the Executive Director of Children’s Services that Coalfields could be first to receive the provision). Referring to the Mobile Youth Villages, Councillor Anderson asked whether records were taken of where the youths travelled from within the area. Page 4 of 52 Ms. Butchert advised that a survey was carried out with young people to determine where they lived. Of the 72 individuals surveyed, 49 provided details of their postcode – these were mainly from DH4/DH5. Councillor Anderson stated that postcodes were not very helpful to Ward Councillors and the information would be much more meaningful if it was broken down ward by ward. Ms. Brown advised that the way the information was collected would be revised and in future children would be asked to tick which village they came from. Councillor Speding stated that the report did not acknowledge that some children crossed ward boundaries to attend schools, for example, Houghton Kepier and Biddick. Councillor Rolph agreed that there needed to be consistency between different sets of statistics. Ms. Brown agreed to carry out a data cleansing exercise to obtain an accurate reflection of statistics. With regard to anti-bullying programmes, Ms. Brown circulated a DVD for Members regarding the successful project in the Coalfield whereby a student who had previously been bullied was used in a video to promote anti bullying. Councillor Anderson emphasised the importance of adhering to the Anti Bullying Strategy. Peer support through a ‘buddy’ system had proved to be an excellent way of enhancing school life experience and helping to ensure bullying was not carried out ‘in the dark’. Referring to Education Business Connections (EBC) which was an organisation formed to support the closer joint working of schools and employers, Councillor Speding queried the extent to which they were able to deliver a cohesive service, especially when engaging with small businesses. Close attention needed to be given to local industrial estates'